Price Crunches on Businesses

Dudley's Florists’ trucks travel 4,800 miles a week making deliveries. Manager Doug Hall says that if the gas price per gallon remains at or above $2.00 it could cost the company an extra $30,000 for fuel this year.

For the time being, Dudley's is holding the line both on its prices and its delivery practices, but Hall admits that having to eat the costs can't continue indefinitely.

It's not just the cost of gas that's hurting the pizza delivery business. Wayne Waldeck, head of Napoli's parent company, says the cost of raw materials has increased 23 percent this year. That includes the cost of cheese.

Waldeck says Napoli's is making efforts to cut costs, including shopping for low prices, and running as many deliveries at one time as possible. It's also restricting deliveries to places outside its immediate service area, and asking people in those areas to pick up their orders in person.

So far, he says those people are understanding, and there's no letup.

On the Futures Market Monday, the price of crude oil rose to another high, $41.72.

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